Review: Once Upon a Time – The Crocodile

SPOILERS AHEAD!
After last week, I think it was pretty safe to say people were excited for this week’s episode. A look into the past of Rumpelstiltskin, the introduction of Captain Hook, more story on Belle… a definite must see for fans of the show. Well, the episode has aired and it definitely didn’t disappoint!

The story takes place in both Storybrooke and the past as we delve into the depths of Rumpelstiltskin. The episode begins in present-day with Belle catching Rumpelstiltskin practicing magic late at night which causes her to second guess her relationship and living arrangements. She confronts him about it and it quickly turns into the same conversation we’ve heard by the likes of him and Regina. Magic equals power, and that isn’t always a feeling that’s simple to cut ties with. Rumple lies to Belle who, in turn, leaves him.

Belle, in the meantime, goes to Granny’s and meets Ruby. She mentions she has no place to go, nothing to do, but she loves book; so Ruby suggests that Belle become the new town librarian. So she heads off to the library, which is locked, and is able to peek inside. William, an overweight man in an oversized red knit cap, interrupts her. He asks her a couple of weird panhandler questions before he kidnaps her and takes off. Yet another morally sound Storybrooke character. Turns out that Moe (Belle’s father) hired William to kidnap her.

Rumple, worried about Belle’s disappearance after he cannot find her, approaches Charming, who is acting as town sheriff until Emma returns. Rumple explains Belle’s disappearance and they go in search of her. Ruby decides to help, and with her heightened sense of smell (she is the big bad wolf, after all), follows Belle’s scent to Moe’s flower shop. Moe tells them that he’s sending Belle to a safe place where she’ll forget about Rumple and everyone else. Clever Rumple deduces that he’s sending her across the town line and Charming takes one look at Maurice’s dirt-covered hands and figures out that he’s using the mines to dodge the guards there.

They find her handcuffed to a mine cart on her Temple of Doom adventure. Rumple uses magic to stop the cart and bring it back. Fortunately, Belle still has her memory and is grateful to be alive but she is still angry at both Rumple and Moe. She tells them both to stay out of her life forever. Good for her, but knowing Belle, this won’t last. She’s way too forgiving. Later, Rumple shows up at the library and apologizes for being a coward and Belle, as the forgiver she is, asks if he will have a hamburger with her sometime, as she’s never had one. Rumple agrees.

Flashback to old Fairytale Land. Rumple comes home and finds his son sitting alone. His mother is nowhere to be found. They go together to a bar where Rumple finds his wife, Milah sitting amongst a group of men, drinking plenty of wine and having a ball. Rumple meekly asks her to come home and she refuses. She accuses him of being a coward because he ran away from the Ogre Wars and she embarrasses him in front of her friends. She doesn’t grow a conscious until their son asks her to come home. Then she gets embarrassed and leaves.

In the morning, there’s a knock at Rumple’s door with a woman saying Milah had been taken and is on a ship. Rumple goes to find her only to be confronted by Captain Killian from the night before. Rumple begs for her back and Killian challenges him to a duel. Unable to duel, he loses his wife.

Flash forward a few years and Rumple is now The Dark One. Killian enters the bar and Rumple sees an opportunity. He bumps into the ship captain on the way out, and Killian, mistaking him for a beggar, pushes him around in the street before Rumple reveals who he truly is. He challenges Killian to a duel the next evening. At the duel, Rumple bests Killian easily before Milah shows up begging for his life. She offers to exchange a magic bean, thought to be lost to the land, in exchange for their lives. Rumple decides to meet them to see the bean on their ship. Upon seeing the it, Rumple’s anger gets the best of him, he cuts of Killian’s hand and rips out Milah’s heart, killing her. Rumple takes the hand, which contained the bean and disappears, only to find out later that the hand was empty. Killian, then replaces his stump with a hook and ends up becoming Captain Hook, on his way to a land where he’ll never age… Neverland!

This was a good episode. It answered a lot of questions so for that reason alone, it was totally worth watching. The only drawback is they advertised Hook as being more evil than Rumple and it just didn’t come through. He was a bully and a jerk but Rumple makes shady deals and is now the killer of his first wife and the mother of his son, along with being Fairytale Land and Storybrooke’s resident terrorist. Somehow, that trumps bully any day. On a side note, who thinks that Baelfire (Rumple’s son) will end up being Peter Pan?

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

One Comment

MarianaOctober 25th, 2012 at 9:52 am

Agree with you completelly, great episode and explained a lot of things. It’s kind of funny how, if you’re a big Disney fan, you can guess who people are by the little things, like Smee’s oversized red knit cap. Ps, I’ve been thinking the same, Rumple’s son has to be someone important, and Peter Pan may just be it.